ÎÞÓǶÌÊÓƵ

The Individual Player National Championship Tournament (IPNCT) will be held at the hotel in Rosemont, IL, on April 7, 2019. This is the same hotel that hosted the 2018 IPNCT.

The IPNCT is ÎÞÓǶÌÊÓƵ’s championship for individual high school and middle school players. ÎÞÓǶÌÊÓƵ also runs team-based national championships for high schools in general (the HSNCT), small high schools (the SSNCT), and middle schools (the MSNCT).

Starting in 2019, the IPNCT will have separate divisions for high school players and middle school players. In each division, ÎÞÓǶÌÊÓƵ will recognize an overall champion (and other high finishers) and also honor the top players in individual subject areas.

Tournament Date

April 7, 2019 (Sunday). This is the same weekend (and site) as ÎÞÓǶÌÊÓƵ’s 2019 Intercollegiate Championship Tournament, but the IPNCT is a completely separate event.

Participants will check in on Saturday, April 6.

All gameplay will occur on Sunday, April 7.

Presenting Sponsor

ÎÞÓǶÌÊÓƵ is thrilled to have LetterOne as the presenting sponsor of the 2019 IPNCT (as well as the 2019 ICT and the 2019 HSNCT). LetterOne is a partnership of successful entrepreneurs and former CEOs aiming to create one of the world’s pre-eminent international investment firms. LetterOne believes quiz bowl encourages the innovative thinking that is valuable to the next generation of business leaders in the face of a new industrial revolution in which social media, robotics, 3D manufacturing, artificial intelligence, and new trade corridors are altering the landscape.

Location

hotel in Rosemont, Illinois (near Chicago). This is the official hotel, and it contains all of the competition rooms. A floor plan is available.

Schedule

This schedule is final.

All times are listed in Central time.

ÎÞÓǶÌÊÓƵ will start the finals (and awards) as soon as possible; 3:55 p.m. is an estimate of when they will begin (but it might be earlier or later).

During the tournament, participants may text 213‑279‑6278 (“ÎÞÓǶÌÊÓƵ”) with questions; tournament staff will answer incoming messages as quickly as they can. Standard messaging rates apply.

Information Desk

During check-in on Saturday evening, ÎÞÓǶÌÊÓƵ will take questions at the check-in tables. On Sunday, during the tournament itself, the Information Desk will be in the International Level atrium. The Information Desk should be the first destination for any questions about or issues with the tournament (other than protests, which must be lodged within the game room). ÎÞÓǶÌÊÓƵ will also be selling practice material at the Information Desk.

Participants may also text 213‑279‑6278 (“ÎÞÓǶÌÊÓƵ”) with questions if it is inconvenient for them to get to the Information Desk. Tournament staff will answer incoming messages as quickly as they can.

In general, lost-and-found items will be taken to the Information Desk during the tournament. We will notify owners to the extent we can identify them. At the end of the tournament, any unclaimed items will be brought to the hotel’s general lost-and-found.

Gameplay Rules

The tournament will use ÎÞÓǶÌÊÓƵ’s standard rules with these modifications:

• There are only tossups (no bonuses)
• Matches are untimed
• There are no notions of teammates or captains
• Some matches (“group matches”) will start with eight to ten students playing at once
• In group matches, an interrupt penalty will be assessed for every incorrect answer given before the question is over
• In group matches, players may be removed from the game (“buzz out”) before it is over, depending on their performance
• In group matches, a question only “goes dead” when time expires or every active player has answered incorrectly
• There are no timeouts in group matches, but there will be periodic score checks

The complete IPNCT rules (PDF) are available; there are minor changes from 2018.

Eligibility

The high school division is open to all players eligible to compete for their school (or homeschool) team according to ÎÞÓǶÌÊÓƵ’s High School Eligibility Rules; the middle school division is open to all players eligible to compete for their school (or homeschool) team according to ÎÞÓǶÌÊÓƵ’s Middle School Eligibility Rules.

In general terms, this tournament is open to all students in grade 12 or below from any kind of school anywhere in the world. Players with special eligibility circumstances may write to [email protected] for a ruling on their situations.

Qualification

There is no qualification procedure for the Individual Player National Championship Tournament. ÎÞÓǶÌÊÓƵ welcomes all players who want to see how their knowledge, anticipation, and buzzer speed stack up against the very best.

Field

The IPNCT will have two divisions, one for high school players (grades 9–12) and one for middle school players (grades 8 and below).

The high school field is limited to 140 competitors. The current field can be viewed online. The field was originally limited to 96 competitors, but it has been expanded six times (most recently on March 8, 2019) when it filled earlier than ÎÞÓǶÌÊÓƵ expected.

The middle school field is limited to 90 competitors. The current field can be viewed online. The field was originally limited to 64 competitors, but it has been expanded four times (most recently on March 15, 2019).

Format

The championship will begin with three group matches of 48 or 72 tossups each in which ten players will compete to be the first to buzz out by hitting a given point threshold (60 or 90 points). The order in which players buzz out determines their seeding for the next group match (players that don’t buzz out are ranked by points scored).

There will be two further elimination group matches of 72 questions each. Elimination group matches differ from the earlier matches in that not all players advance to the next round. In addition, ties for the final advancement spot are played off at the buzzer (rather than by being broken by statistics). The number of rooms and number of players in each room for each elimination group match will differ by division.

Following the elimination group matches, the final 32 competitors will play head-to-head matches on 24-tossup packets to determine the champion. (These matches will be single elimination with some placement games.)

No competitor will be eliminated from contention prior to the end of the first elimination group match.

Detailed descriptions of the high school format and middle school format are available.

The IPNCT format is based on the Hillemann Singles Format pioneered by ÎÞÓǶÌÊÓƵ Member Emeritus Eric Hillemann in 1997.

Registration & Fees

The registration fee for the championship is $160 per competitor.

Spots in the field are not guaranteed until payment is received.

In addition, as of Friday, March 1, registration will be considered final. Should a competitor cancel on or after March 2, but before March 15, they will still be liable for 50% of the registration fee. Players that cancel on or after March 15 (including no-shows) will be liable for the entire registration fee. Those deadlines notwithstanding, every player will have a one-week grace period from the day on which they register, during which they may cancel with no penalty.

Registration closed on April 2, 2019.

Questions

The high school division will use the tossups from the Division II ICT set, plus however many newly written tossups are necessary for the final format. No bonuses will be used at this tournament. High school players unfamiliar with college-level questions may see a sample of last year’s Division II ICT set on ÎÞÓǶÌÊÓƵ’s site.

The middle school division will use a set of tossups newly written for this tournament that are at approximately the level of ÎÞÓǶÌÊÓƵ’s regular Invitational Series. These questions will be harder than ÎÞÓǶÌÊÓƵ’s past Middle School National Championship Tournament sets (but similar in difficulty to the questions used for the playoff rounds at the 2019 MSNCT). Middle school players may check out ÎÞÓǶÌÊÓƵ’s sample regular Invitational Series packet to get an idea of the likely difficulty.

Every participant will receive a complete copy of the packet sets used in their division. Be sure to pick these up following the awards ceremony!

Chaperones

Each player who is not yet 18 years of age (as of April 7, 2019) must be accompanied by an adult chaperone. Multiple players may share the same chaperone. Note that players may not be competing in the same room, so a chaperone with multiple players will often need to choose which player to watch in a given round.

Checking In

Competitors (including standby players) should arrive on Saturday and check in between 7:00 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. If competitors cannot check in on Saturday night, they should do so on Sunday morning between 7:00 a.m. and 7:55 a.m.

The 2019 Individual Player National Championship Tournament will use the Division II packet set from the 2019 Intercollegiate Championship Tournament (ICT), which is being held Saturday at the same site. Competitors should be aware that ICT gameplay may run as late as 8:30 p.m. on Saturday. No competitor (or coach or spectator with ties to a competitor) in the 2019 IPNCT championship may watch any part of the ICT (including the awards ceremony). (This includes the Division I matches, since the Division I and Division II question sets will share question content.)

Standby players should make sure to attend the morning player meeting (unless they have been previously told that all competitors have checked in and there is no spot for them in the tournament).

Standby List

Potential competitors willing to travel to the tournament site without a guaranteed spot may sign up for the standby list by writing to [email protected]. Such players will only play if a spot opens up, and if they play, they will play for free.

Awards

In each division, all players who survive the elimination group matches and qualify for the head-to-head rounds will receive plaques. In addition, the top players in each subject area (history, literature, etc.) will also receive plaques.

Each plaque will be personalized with the name of the competitor and have a list of their overall finish and top subject performances. These plaques will be ordered by ÎÞÓǶÌÊÓƵ following the tournament and shipped to the players who earned them.

T-Shirts

Thanks to the championship’s sponsor, LetterOne, each player will receive an event T-shirt at check-in.

Consolation Group Matches

Starting in Round 5, once some players have been eliminated, ÎÞÓǶÌÊÓƵ will make surplus rooms, staff, and buzzer systems available for consolation group matches for interested players. These will be organized informally, and there may not be enough spaces to accommodate all interested players in each round.

Transportation

Hotel

The (9300 Bryn Mawr Avenue, Rosemont, Illinois) is both the official hotel and the competition site for the tournament.

Rooms with one king bed are available for $115 per night; rooms with two double beds are available for $123 per night. To receive this rate, rooms must be booked before March 18, 2019 (and before the room block fills).

Rooms may be or reserved by calling the hotel at 847-696-1234. Note that the hotel has only a single room block for both the ICT and the IPNCT; you should not be concerned by the fact that you are booking as part of a guest-room block named for the ICT.)

Participants that book rooms as part of ÎÞÓǶÌÊÓƵ’s official block are guaranteed to have free wireless Internet access in their guest rooms and in the public areas (but not in the meeting rooms).

Lunch

Thanks to the IPNCT’s sponsor, LetterOne, a buffet lunch at the hotel’s O’H American Grill will be provided for each participant and their official chaperone. Tickets for this meal will be distributed at the end of Round 3 (for high school players) and at the end of Round 4 (for middle school players).

No other meals are provided by the tournament.

Advocate Program

Because ÎÞÓǶÌÊÓƵ believes that quiz bowl is an activity for everybody, and in which all participants should feel welcome and respected, we have established the Advocate Program to make sure select tournament staff are available to hear reports about problematic behavior and comments by anyone at the tournament.

Staff wearing blue ribbons that say “Advocate” have been specifically selected to receive reports about inappropriate behavior (as opposed to run-of-the-mill questions about the quiz bowl aspects of the tournament). At least one such staff member will generally be available at the Information Desk during tournament hours; if no such person is available (e.g., due to being on a break), the other Information Desk staff can be asked to have a senior tournament official come to the Information Desk to hear the report. Additional Advocate Program staff will be available in many places around the tournament site.

Feedback about problematic behavior can, of course, always be sent to ÎÞÓǶÌÊÓƵ by email ([email protected]) or other channels such as the Misconduct Reporting Form, but the Advocate Program is intended to allow for in-person reporting of sensitive complaints on-site so they can be handled immediately.

Reports are confidential to the extent permitted by law and ÎÞÓǶÌÊÓƵ’s agreements to share critical information with other quiz bowl organizations.

Practice Material

Participants may be interested in practicing on questions from previous years to prepare for the event. All of ÎÞÓǶÌÊÓƵ’s past regular-season sets are available, as are the sets from previous championships.

Participants may also want to study frequency lists, Power Up study guides, and/or Thumbs Up! question anthologies. These are also available on our practice materials page.

Finally, participants may want to look at the information contained in ÎÞÓǶÌÊÓƵ’s free You Gotta Know articles before the tournament. These detail the most frequently asked-about question topics in a wide variety of areas.

Spectators

Spectators are welcome to attend any part of the tournament (though some areas may have limited capacity).

No registration or tickets are required for spectators.

Sightseeing

View Sightseeing Recommendations

Social Media

The official hashtag for the tournament is ipnct; please use this tag for all posts about the tournament.

Remember that question content for the championship cannot be posted online (or shared through other channels)! This means that players, coaches, spectators, and moderators should not discuss clues, answers, or even overall themes (e.g., “Lots of opera”) with anyone else at all.

We will post highlights from the tournament on ÎÞÓǶÌÊÓƵ’s social media.

Companion Mobile App

ÎÞÓǶÌÊÓƵ has created a companion mobile app for attendees. The app includes the tournament schedule (with the ability to set reminders for various events), links to results, maps of the venue, help reaching the Information Desk, connections to social media, and other important documents related to the tournament.

Further Questions

To ask specific questions about the IPNCT, write to [email protected].

We look forward to answering any and all questions, no matter how expansive or trivial, in the hopes of eliminating any possible confusion or mistakes in participants’ plans. If something’s not clear, let us know!